Operatives of Hizbollah tracked former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri
for three months before blowing him up, mobile phone records detailed by a
UN tribunal investigating his death have shown.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) released its indictment against four members of the Shia group accused of involvement in the killing, including circumstantial evidence gathered against them, as well as their international arrest warrants.

"This unsealing of the indictment answers many questions about the 14 February 2005 attack," the STL's prosecutor, Daniel Bellamare, said.

Mr Hariri and 21 others were killed and more than 200 injured when a solitary suicide bomber detonated two and a half tonnes of TNT near his car.

Mr Bellemare's investigation, which has been plagued by allegations of bias and conspiracy, claimed a number of mobile phone networks were used by the accused as they followed Mr Hariri in the days leading up to the attack.

It alleges that the accused began monitoring Hariri on November 11, 2004 and "carried out acts in preparation for the attack including observation and surveillance, in order to learn the routes and movements of his convoy and the position of [Mr] Hariri's vehicle within it."

It says the four used five special mobile telephone networks identified by different colours, including two that were covert and only used to call members of the group. The covert "red" network ceased all activity just two minutes before the explosion. The last 33 calls made on phones using the networks were made from areas where Hariri was in the two hours leading up to his death.

The indictment admitted that the case depended largely on circumstantial evidence, but added that in such cases this could be more reliable than direct evidence which could be distorted.

Mr Bellemare confirmed that Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra were accused of a variety of charges, including committing a terrorist act and intentional homicide.

Badreddine, who is known as a senior Hizbollah commander, "served as the overall controller of the attack," according to the indictment.

Ayyash, who gained notoriety for organising guerrilla counter-attacks against Israel in south Lebanon during the 2006 War, is said to have coordinated the assassination team.

Hizbollah members Oneissi and Sabra, about whom little is known, are accused of organising a "false claim" video, which was handed to news agencies in the wake of the bombing in a bid to divert the attention of investigators.

The findings will inflame an already fraught political situation in Beirut.

Hizbollah, a heavyweight in the ruling pro-Syrian March 8 coalition, has repeatedly sought to discredit the court, labelling it an Israeli conspiracy.

Under an agreement it signed with the UN in 2007, Lebanon is obliged to assist the STL in apprehending suspects and transferring them for trial in The Hague. While the current, Hizbollah-backed prime minister Najib Mikati has said Lebanese authorities are pursuing the accused of "daily" operations, Western diplomats say the accused are living under the protection of a Hizbollah "security net" and will not be apprehended.

Saad Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister and son of Rafiq, urged Hizbollah to turn over the four members.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's leader, has vowed party members will not be handed over "even in 300 years."